RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Covering is coming along nicely. Bottom and both sides of fuse are covered. I should finish the fuse tomorrow. Admittedly, the EIII is easy to cover, what with flat sides and no compound curves other than the wingtips, but I am loving the Solartex. I've used coverite and thought it was good stuff, but solartex beats it hands down.

I repaired the cracked king post. After brushing the grass and dirt off of the wing, it didn't look too bad. A light sanding and another coat of paint should do it.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Solartex rocks! ;)

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Long day at work. Only managed to get a little covering done. I did get the wing sanded and repainted without dropping it on the grass this time.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Still working on it. The fuse and all control surfaces are covered. I'm planning on painting the fuse before covering the wing, so I started masking the fuse for paint. I'm mixing a couple of paint schemes. The wheels are different from the one shown, but they look cool.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

I've finished covering the E III. Boy, did I like the solartex. It costs a little more, but is sure worth it. I'm not using any decals on this plane. No offense to those who are/have used decals, but I wanted to try to get along without them. I may regret my decision, but I made a template for making stensils for the Maltese crosses. It will take two stensils per cross. It's late now, so I'll wait till tomorrow to look at my fuse again before I paint anything.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Almost forgot to mention. The BUSA 90 size EIII is about 23% scale. I bought a 25% pilot, too big. 20% pilot is a bit small, but he works. The problem with him is that me makes my 25% machine gun look huge. I will be assembling the wood machine gun that came with the kit for my EIII.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

I finished painting the crosses on my fuselage. It turned out to be more of a problem that I thought, of course. I'll have some touch-up to do. Essentially, the masking tape was used twice. Applied to my cutting board to cut the stencil, and then to the plane for paint. The paint bled under the tape more easily that way, but I corrected when I painted the second half cross, and was extra careful to get the tape well applied. The touch-up won't be bad. Funny thing, removing the masking from the fuse, I felt like a kit at Christmas opening presents. I'll do some final assembly on the fuse before painting the wing.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Perfect-a- mundo! :)

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Thanks, Gary.

I got the elevator and landing gear attached (for good) tonight. Hope to get the rudder attached and the "scale" portion of the landing gear soldered on tomorrow.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Akbowen,

If you are having trouble with paint bleeding under the mask, try this -
Apply the mask, then shoot the edges with a light mist of clear coat. When dry, follow with the color coat. That usually gives a much sharper line with less bleeding.

Steve

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Beat me to it! +1. Also try to spray away from each edge.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Guys, thanks for the tip on spray painting. I'll do that on the wings. I do believe the bigger problem this time was the double sticking of the tape, as I did not have that kind of paint bleed on the other painted areas.

Well, I got a bit done this weekend. I have assembled the "scale" landing gear. My metal working skills lag behing my wood working skills, which are not too great themselves. There are a couple of builds that I follow where some real craftsmanship is demonstrated. I don't have that kind of skill, so I have to cover up my defeciencies. This time I did it with black paint. The wire was previously bent and I soldered everything together this weekend. It's been a while since I've done it, and while it's solid, it does not look too good. However, a couple coats of black rustoleum have it looking better.

Rudder and elevator pushrods are installed. Next I mount the engine, install the fuel tank, batteries and radio. The only time consuming thing on the wing will be painting. I hope to have my EIII flying in a couple of weeks.

Pics don't seem to want to upload now. I'll try again later.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

I sprayed TF lustrecoat first then painted with no bleeding

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Trying the picture upload again. To tired to work on the plane any more. Will try to get the engine mounted tomorrow.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

looks good, probably the 1st time I land mine there will solder flying every where. Sick of winter 10 below here Thursday. Only flying indoors at local school.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

I've gotten the engine mounted, hopefully for the last time. I'll have to move my throttle servo from it's current positon to get the best angle on the pushrod, but no big deal. I know that's a lot of engine with a big muffler to boot, but it fits. I'm getting itchy to fly this thing.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Throttle servo is repositoned in front of the landing gear block. It gives me a short straight shot at the throttle arm. Tomorrow, I'll probably get the fuel tank fixed in place. I assembled the BUSA machine gun. Like a lot of things on this plane, it's gonna look good from a distance.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

I was able to spend most of Saturday morning working on my EIII. I've gotten some stuff done: Fuel system installed. Ignition installed. Radio and battery switches installed. All fuse control linkages hooked up. Pretty much the only thing left to do on the fuse is install the batteries and receiver. So, time to work on the wing and finish it so I can balance the plane.

The only thing I haven't hooked up on the engine is a linkage to the choke. It is in a tricky position with the engine mount that I'm using. Standoffs would have been much easier to use. Anyhow, I was always thinking that I would figure out a good way to hook up a control linkage for the choke. Still thinking about that one. But, with the cowl open on the bottom, I can reach it easily. The throttle has a catch for the choke so that the choke will stay closed at low throttle setting until you open the throttle, then the choke opens. I figure that I can work the choke as is. At least, that is my plan for now.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

I've gotten the crosses half painted on the wings. Thanks for the tips with the paint bleed. I did use the clear lustrecoat this time. Still got a bit of bleed. I think the real problem is with my technique for forming the crosses. It requires me to stick the masking tape to my cutting board, cut it, and then re-stick it to the solartex. It simply did not work quite as well as I hoped. Not really bad looking, but not as crisp as I would have liked either. I'll have to look for or think of another technique if I try painting Maltese crosses again. I made a base for my pilot, Helmut, to sit on. He was sitting too low in the cockpit, so I built a booster seat. Also, I posted a pic of my BUSA machine gun.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Maltese crosses are painted on the wings. I will have some touch-up to do with the paint bleeding under the tape in places. Couldn't resist putting Helmut in the plane and attaching his gun. I've gotten one aileron servo hooked up. One more and all I would have to do is balance the plane in order to fly!!! Maybe this weekend? I want to get the rigging hooked up before I fly. I picked up some jewlery wire, but that looked better in the store than it does on the plane. Next try is the fishing tackle shop.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Good luck this weekend, should fly great. Looking forward to your report.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Thanks, flyer. A cold front is coming through tonight. Hopefully, the wind will settle down by Saturday morning. If so, I will be flying it.

Got the rigging wires attached to the top of the wing. Found some fishing leader that worked well.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

One more tip for the bleed ...
Instead of cutting your tape masks on a board, use a clean piece of glass instead. You'd be amazed at what even a few pieces of dust on the edge of the tape will do to a paint job.
Thanks for the thread. I just aquired one of these that is about 50% done and am looking forward to completing it soon.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Maiden flight complete. Sorry, but no video. I think it's bad luck to video the maiden, and I had planned to video the second flight today but the wind was up as you can see from the windsock in my photo, so there was no second flight today. Nothing suprising to report. The plane flew great. My Mintor 22 engine never got up to half throttle in flight. I think I could fly a half hour on my 12 ounce fuel tank. The build must have been pretty straight. Two clicks of left aileron and one click of down elevator was all the trimming that was needed. I've still got to install the rigging wires on the bottom of the wing, but other than that, she is done. Probably because of the gas engine, no additional weight was needed. It was easy to balance just with placement of the radio and ignition batteries. I'm planning to fly again Monday. Will try to get video.

RE: Another Eindecker build
 

Nice!